Other Views: Bombs aren't an answer in the Ukraine

Looking back, there likely is little the United States could have done differently to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from sending his troops into Ukraine.

Putin saw Ukraine falling into the liberal sway of western Europe, and the overthrow of Russian-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych proved to be the last straw. No American foreign policy, no matter how hard-edged toward the Russian autocrat's regime, likely would have changed Putin's mind.

Looking forward? That's different.

Militarily aggressive China has declared itself "in agreement" with the Ukraine invasion. U.S. interests on both sides of the globe are facing threats that are certain to grow more serious if not challenged.

President Barack Obama declared on Friday "there will be costs" in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine - a warning that failed to fend off the Russian tanks and troops that streamed across the Ukrainian border over the weekend. The president now needs to spell out what those costs will include.

In an interview with Time magazine in late February, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., identified a few of the possibilities. A serious-minded first step would be to revive the plan approved under the George W. Bush administration to place missile-defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.

In response to strong objections from Moscow, Obama scrapped the plan in 2009. Putin has made it clear that such goodwill gestures don't make much impression.

McCain and other Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also propose restricting the ability of Putin's kleptocratic friends in the Russian business community to obtain U.S. visas. According to Rubio, many of them have been using their ill-gotten billions to buy up property in Florida.

That sort of casual acceptance of Putin's thug-friendly business practices needs to be discouraged.

Obama's announced plans for downsizing the U.S. military may need to be put on hold, too.

But the strongest weapons at the disposal of Obama and his European allies are economic. The developed nations that make up the Group of Eight need to seriously consider revoking Russia's membership in that economic club. At the same time, they should put together a substantial economic-aid package to help bolster Ukraine's nearly collapsed economy.

The discouraging fact is that Obama's options for making Putin pay any costs are limited. But the days of goodwill gestures like the "reset button" are past. Putin's invasion of Ukraine has made clear that diplomacy between Russia and the West based on shared interests has its limits.

Putin's new allies in Beijing, who have become increasingly aggressive in asserting their right to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, are keenly interested in how far he can push a crisis.

They need to discover that he can't push it very far.

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Other Views: Bombs aren't an answer in the Ukraine

Looking back, there likely is little the United States could have done differently to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from sending his troops into Ukraine.

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